Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 1127. (Read 141749 times)

don`t be too hard on Xavi, he went the extra mile. He was playing in a group full of big teams and couldn`t do better than he did. Xavi got many things wrong, I agree with you. It must be understood that it was also the first year.

Even if they can play well in the group stage, but still there is no guarantee that they will continue to qualify easily. Because after all, even if they can qualify for the round of 16 but in reality, many leading teams or many favorite teams also fail in the knockout stage like in the round of 16. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether they are group winners or become runners up group, because to reaching the final match in the Champions League will certainly never be easy. Also, I don't care about Barcelona past history. Because anyway, Barcelona history in the last two seasons is also very very bad and at least, it will be difficult to rise in bad situations and conditions like Barcelona experienced in the moment.

To be honest, I don't believe Ancelotti's words, however, as long as the transfer market hasn't closed, there will still be the possibility of bringing in more players. If I'm not mistaken in the 2021 transfer market he said the same thing but in time Real Madrid managed to sign Camavinga. I think that also applies in the transfer market this season and we will still see who the next striker is, although everyone knows who it is. The champions league competition is more difficult than the domestic league competition, so it is impossible this time for Real Madrid to just hope for luck to be able to repeat its success in 2021.

TBH, Im not too brave to make a decision whether Real Madrid will appear strong to compete with Man City even though Bellingham performance is very good at the moment and there are even several other strong teams like Bayern Munich who currently have star players there. so this season UCL competition will be a bit tougher in terms of competition between the top teams.
we all still hope that our favorite team can still get UCL trophy this season but for me it will be less hopeful because even though I am a Real Madrid fan I just want this team to qualify for the final even though I do not know if Bellingham will always be able to performing well but hope is always there to give fire and confidence to Real Madrid.

All team strengths will be clearly read when the group stage has started or is taking place this season. Because for now, we cannot assess all the teams how strong they have this season, even though each team already has new players and might become a mainstay of the team to bring about a change in strength in their squad.

If there are assumptions for historical factors, because Barcelona is a team that has been in operation for a very long time, but for mental factors I think other teams like Real Madrid also have the mentality of winning the Champions League even though last season Real Madrid failed to win the Champions League.

Im not sure if madrid is still looking for a new CF. joselu was not performing so well. That's why ancellotti was changing its strategy.

Ancellotti had no other choice than use such strategy. It's caused by the club has no good central striker at this moment. The club needs to add more attackers that can help the frontline. Bellingham has become a good solution. I think that ancellotti may also need to change its strategy again since vini was injured in the match against celta vigo.

I don't think so. The decision depends on the perez. As long as perez was giving permission for madrid to buy a new player and you will see someone come to the real madrid.
Buying striker seems a must for real madrid right now consider its performance from joselu was still under compared when he played in espanyol.

Carlo Ancelotti's new found formation has really been working well for him since the start of the new Spanish La Liga season but I think that style of football will be strongly tested by other European giants when the UEFA Champions League competition kicks off.
The manager in his pre match conference had made it clear that the club isn't gonna sign Kylian Mbappe this summer but didn't rule out any future deal for the France international. Jude Bellingham is doing well in his new role at the Spanish club and might end up as the club's highest goalscorer of the season if he continues to score goals like this

With the rules and financial disturbance at some big games I had doubts they won't win but they really impressed after all that happenings. It's a thing for debut managers to win something during the second season for Barcelona and I'm proud Xavi Hernandez is a player that has written down history very well with the lads at Barcelona. Winning the Spanish League ain't no easy shit you feel me?

Getefe, Cadiz, Real Madrid and also Espanyol are Barcelona kryptonites they have them ways of exploiting them in several ways. They might not have recruited the right players but they're successfully defending the Spanish League.

Actually when saying Koeman is guilty it is also not entirely the fault of Koeman because he is still better than Quique Setién who could not even bring 1 trophy to Camp Nou and Koeman only continued but could not improve the same as Lampard did at Chelsea or Rangnick who became Manchester United coach.
The era of Barcelona's destruction began with Ernesto Valverde who left to be replaced by Setién who failed miserably at Barcelona coupled with poor management in terms of finance.

Now Xavi's job is to fix that, for the Champions League the last 2 seasons Xavi has completely failed and cannot contribute much because they always crumble in the group phase, this season must be a differentiator because if not then no matter how good Barcelona is in La Liga it will still be criticized when they fail again in the Champions League group phase.

Real Madrid have begun to the season incredibly. They are unstoppable in the La Liga for now. However I still feel like there is something missing for the Champions League. The missing part can still be a better centre-forward. I think they might have more difficulties without a centre-forward like Benzema in the Champions League against top teams.

For now Ancelotti adopts a formation like 4-3-1-2. Rodrygo - Vinicius Junior duo on the front line and Bellingham right behind them. Bellingham is also not playing as an attacking midfielder normally but he is from now on.    Things have been nice so far but the same system might not work smoothly to reach their goal here too.

But Real Madrid look determined about not bringing anyone to the place until signing Mbappe.

I think the steps of a team in the Champions League stage are determined in the group position, if you join relatively easy clubs then the next step will also be smooth. For now, Barca's strength has not really been read because it is only the beginning of the season in the Domestic League while the UCL is still at the Play Off stage. However, with the addition of players like Gundogan, it is hoped that Xavi's squad can go further in the UCL this season.

There are still many who place Barca in the list of favorites with other big teams, perhaps the historical and mental factors they have are the things that underlie these various assumptions.

In the past we have seen the Barcelona manager always try to build a very strong squad. And Barcelona dominated both La Liga and the Champions League. But after messi left the team, the scenario gradually changed. Barcelona coached Koeman. Koeman turned this team into rubble. The performance of the Barcelona team was very bad. Barcelona's performance gradually stabilized after Xavi took over. But still the Barcelona squad cannot be compared with the Munich or Manchester City squad. Also, while Xavi is undoubtedly a good coach now, he lacks the experience as a coach for a platform like the champions league. And so Barcelona cannot be considered as a favorite for the Champions League title this season as well. If the bonding between their players is stronger then maybe the team can do well in the Champions League as well.

The financial problem of Barcelona has really been a set back for them, depriving them from going after good talented players that can help the club to perform well in the Champions league competition.  I'm not too sure about Barcelona in  Champions league if they will do well this season because they really not have the strength to Challenge other strong squad participating in the Champions, I don't see Barcelona to be among the favourites to win champions league.

I think it's difficult to measure Barcelona's strength this season because seeing the appearance of their squad hasn't really seen full consistency, but I think it takes time to see Barcelona's strength in the next few matches in the Spanish league, I hope Barcelona also doesn't fail in the group phase and can make it to the UCL final, though hopefully he doesn't end up in group hell.

So far what I see is that Manchester City's most prominent strength is because it seems they are much stronger than last season. It can be seen from the way they play in the EPL this season, it really looks good, especially with the squad that is currently good enough to win back the UCL champion this season, but besides that there is madrid who will also be a threat because madrid has several good players even though they have not yet found the best striker who can replace benzema.

Actually, there is nothing to worry about Karim Benzema leaving because Jude Bellingham has at least shown good things about Real Madrid's development so far or at least in several matches in Laliga Real Madrid has shown quite impressive things.
Jude Bellingham may not be like Benzema with a lot of experience in the Champions League but he also played in the Champions League while still with Borussia Dortmund, so this will give the young player enough confidence to put on a good show when the Champions League starts.
Real Madrid will again be the favorites even though not as big as Manchester City because City are the defending champions and they have indeed become one of the strongest teams in the world today.
But it seems we can't forget the others because there is still Liverpool and Bayern Munich and also Barcelona, although they are still quite doubtful, especially Barcelona, which is still struggling with financial problems so there is not much they can do in the transfer market this season, but Xavi Hernandez who has managed to bring Barcelona back will also try to make this team good in this big tournament.

Manchester city has all it takes defend the title, they have good coach and players to retain it.

Inter Milan played well in the final and make it hard for them to outclassed them. While Real Madrid was not at their best when they met in the semi final. But it's always hard to defend the champions league, Real Madrid were able to do so, because of the Ronaldo and high profile players they had them. Same goes to Barcelona too, now in Europe Manchester city has same squad and players as then Real Madrid and Barcelona, no squad reach current Manchester city Squad in Europe.

They must be a strongest or one of strongest teams in that season but it's not enough. They also must have enough if not most luckiness in that season to lift Champions League trophy. Without luckiness, a team will not be able to be a Champions League winner even they are considered, in theory, as a strongest team there.

If only being a strongest team, is enough to be a winner, many strong clubs would have successfully protected their titles. In reality so far only Real Madrid succeeded to protect their Champions League trophy.

Manchester City only shown their strength in the second-leg semi final against Real Madrid when they won against Real Madrid very convincingly. In the final match, they did not have a convincing win over Inter Milan. I consider it as a signal that Manchester City will have big trouble to defend their title in this season. They are far from Barcelona or Real Madrid in the past so they will have more difficulties to protect their crown.

I dont know if this is a coincidence or its a reality but for me a team that is able to lift the Champions League trophy usually has star players in the team but also this will not guarantee that a team can get the UCL trophy just because there are star players but that just my opinion.
Barcelona currently still has Lewandowski and for me this player is one of the star players who has had success in the past but he is old enough to appear even stronger and on the one hand Barcelona still has weaknesses in defense because the players that have been obtained this season have only been acquired for free without being able to select players of higher talent to buy.

for Real Madrid it is likely that they will also have the same fate as Barcelona because losing Benzema is one of the difficulties for Madrid to be able to appear stronger as before and until now they have not found a replacement for Benzema and even have to wait for surprise news from Mbappe. and for Man City they still have a chance in the upcoming UCL season but at the start of the season Man City was a little inconsistent in the EPL and their main player Haaland also experienced a change in his performance. I think Guardiola will work hard to improve his players again to be able to lift the UCL trophy again.

Barcelona have been in financial trouble for the past few seasons. The financial condition of the club is not good. Due to this, they are not able to add any big star player to the squad. And they also failed to pay high wages to the squad players. However, Barcelona have a fairly stable and strong squad. If financially able, Xavi would have been able to strengthen his squad and make it Champions League worthy. However, Barcelona's performance has been somewhat erratic and the team is not the favorite for the Champions League title. But I think this team will be able to qualify for the semi finals. Unless they face tough opponents like City or Munich, qualifying for the semi-finals won't be difficult for them.

Well, as for the Champions League semi-final, I would not have swung so far, given the other contenders, with the squad played and not having such serious financial problems. But Barcelona can count on getting out of the group quite well and must fight for it. And then everything will depend on the success of the draw, which clubs will be rivals, how everything will turn out. Nevertheless, Barcelona, in my opinion, is not the main favorite in the current Champions League draw, despite all its progress under the leadership of Xavi Hernandez.